Google’s Project Skybender shoots for 5G internet with drones

If there are two things we love here at TrustedReviews, it’s drones and high-speed internet.

Google is testing drones that can deliver super-fast 5G internet from the sky.

The project – dubbed SkyBender – is currently being trialled in New Mexico in the USA, as first revealed by the Guardian.

The drones make use of high-frequency millimetre waves that have the potential to offer gigabit speeds.

The downside of millimetre waves is that the transmission range is shorter – they disappear at about one tenth of the distance of a 4G signal. But speeds can rise to 40 times that of today’s 4G/LTE networks.

“The huge advantage of millimetre wave access to new spectrum because the existing cellphone spectrum is overcrowded,” Jacques Rudell, a professor of electrical engineering, tells the Guardian.

The drones use prototype tranceivers build by Google at the isolated Spaceport America, which once played host to Virgin Atlantic.